Pay it Forward
A popular car bumper sticker reads, "If you can read this, thank a teacher!" I might say, "If you can read THIS (article on Embedded Related), then you've been blessed with great experiences and/or great educators or volunteers that got you excited about tech and helped you believe that you had a future in this field!" Why not pay it forward by helping other children have those same great experiences? As we enter another season of giving, I hope you consider doing what you can to support the hundreds or thousands of non-profit organizations, educators, and volunteers around the world who are getting kids excited about tech the same way YOU got excited about tech. In this article, I'll share with you a handful of organizations that I know of or donate to that have this mission. How do you like to give back?
Zephyr: West Manifest For Application Development
In this blog post, I show a simpler way to create custom West manifest files. This technique eliminates the need to duplicate the complex West manifest from upstream Zephyr. I also show how we can use the West manifest to include out-of-tree board and SoC definitions, and include our own out-of-tree drivers.
What is “real time”?
The term “real time” is widely used nowadays. Although it is a technical term, it finds its way into quite normal conversation. I might be heard to say “I do not watch much real-time TV”, meaning that I use streaming services to watch what I want when I want. So, colloquially, real time means “immediate” or “occurring now”. How does this align with its precise meaning when we refer to a real time operating system, for example? …
Looking up “real-time system” in a rather...
Simulating Your Embedded Project on Your Computer (Part 2)
Having a simulation of your embedded project is like having a superpower that improves the quality and pace of your development ten times over! To be useful, though, it can't take longer to develop the simulation than it takes to develop the application code and for many simulation techniques "the juice isn't worth the squeeze"! In the last article, I showed you how to use the terminal (i.e. printf/getchar) to easily make a completely functional simulation. In this article, we'll take simulation to the next level, either in terms of realism (by using virtual hardware) or in terms of user experience (by using a GUI to simulate our hardware, instead of using the terminal).
Blocking == Technical Debt
Blocking occurs every time a program waits in line for something to happen. For instance, the basic Arduino "Blink" example turns the LED on and calls the delay() function to wait for a timeout event in 1000 milliseconds. Then it turns the LED off and calls delay() to wait in line for another timeout event in 1000 milliseconds. Performed in a loop, this ends up blinking the LED.
Blocking in Arduino programming is accomplished by busy waiting. But it is not the only form. Blocking based...
In TCL FPGA Wizards Trust
In TCL FPGA wizards trust. The best way to learn TCL is exposure therapy which we will be doing here using two examples: One for creation of a project with synthesis and implementation steps and another for simulation.
How 5G impacts future IoT development
The Internet of Things (IoT) applications are ubiquitous today. IoT is used in almost every industrial, commercial, and consumer market segment, including autonomous driving, smart factories, automation and preventive maintenance, smart homes, smart cities, security, asset tracking, supply chain management, agriculture, farming, healthcare, smart medicine and remote surgery, augmented reality applications, activity monitoring, and more. The three most promising uses of IoT are smart manufacturing, autonomous driving, and healthcare, particularly remote surgery.
Product quality: belief or proof?
Embedded software development is a challenging activity, so it is essential to have tools and IP that is of the best quality. However, assessing that quality can be, in itself, a challenge.
Picowoose: The Raspberry Pi Pico-W meets Mongoose
This example application describes the way to adapt the George Robotics CYW43 driver, present in the Pico-SDK, to work with Cesanta's Mongoose. We are then able to use Mongoose internal TCP/IP stack (with TLS 1.3), instead of lwIP (and MbedTLS).
Simulating Your Embedded Project on Your Computer (Part 1)
Having a simulation of your embedded project is like having a superpower that improves the quality and pace of your development ten times over! To be useful, though, it can't take longer to develop the simulation than it takes to develop the application code and for many simulation techniques "the juice isn't worth the squeeze"! In this two-part blog series, I'll share with you the arguments in favor of simulation (so, hopefully, you too believe in its value) and I'll show you what works (and what doesn't work) to help you to simply, easily, and quickly simulate your embedded project on your computer.
Simulating Your Embedded Project on Your Computer (Part 2)
Having a simulation of your embedded project is like having a superpower that improves the quality and pace of your development ten times over! To be useful, though, it can't take longer to develop the simulation than it takes to develop the application code and for many simulation techniques "the juice isn't worth the squeeze"! In the last article, I showed you how to use the terminal (i.e. printf/getchar) to easily make a completely functional simulation. In this article, we'll take simulation to the next level, either in terms of realism (by using virtual hardware) or in terms of user experience (by using a GUI to simulate our hardware, instead of using the terminal).
Blocking == Technical Debt
Blocking occurs every time a program waits in line for something to happen. For instance, the basic Arduino "Blink" example turns the LED on and calls the delay() function to wait for a timeout event in 1000 milliseconds. Then it turns the LED off and calls delay() to wait in line for another timeout event in 1000 milliseconds. Performed in a loop, this ends up blinking the LED.
Blocking in Arduino programming is accomplished by busy waiting. But it is not the only form. Blocking based...
What is “real time”?
The term “real time” is widely used nowadays. Although it is a technical term, it finds its way into quite normal conversation. I might be heard to say “I do not watch much real-time TV”, meaning that I use streaming services to watch what I want when I want. So, colloquially, real time means “immediate” or “occurring now”. How does this align with its precise meaning when we refer to a real time operating system, for example? …
Looking up “real-time system” in a rather...
Cracking the (embedded) Coding Interview
You never forget the day you land your first job.
The thrill of receiving that call from your recruiter to tell you that you bagged your dream role! The relief when you finally see the offer letter you’ve been working towards for years. The pride in your parents' voices when you call home and say “Hey look Ma, I’ve made it!”
But before that, there’s the grueling screening process to get through. Tech interviews often last up to three months and companies can have five...
How to Read a Power MOSFET Datasheet
One of my pet peeves is when my fellow engineers misinterpret component datasheets. This happened a few times recently in separate instances, all involving power MOSFETs. So it’s time for me to get on my soapbox. Listen up!
I was going to post an article on how to read component datasheets in general. But MOSFETs are a good place to start, and are a little more specific. I’m not the first person to write something about how to read datasheets; here are some other good...
In TCL FPGA Wizards Trust
In TCL FPGA wizards trust. The best way to learn TCL is exposure therapy which we will be doing here using two examples: One for creation of a project with synthesis and implementation steps and another for simulation.
Chebyshev Approximation and How It Can Help You Save Money, Win Friends, and Influence People
Well... maybe that's a stretch. I don't think I can recommend anything to help you win friends. Not my forte.
But I am going to try to convince you why you should know about Chebyshev approximation, which is a technique for figuring out how you can come as close as possible to computing the result of a mathematical function, with a minimal amount of design effort and CPU power. Let's explore two use cases:
- Amy has a low-power 8-bit microcontroller and needs to compute \( \sqrt{x} \)...
Analyzing the Linker Map file with a little help from the ELF and the DWARF
When you're writing firmware, there always comes a time when you need to check the resources consumed by your efforts - perhaps because you're running out of RAM or Flash or you want to optimize something. The map file generated by your linker is a useful tool to aid in the resource analysis. I wanted to filter and sort the data generated in an interactive way so I wrote a C# WinForms application that reads the data from the map and presents it in a list view (using the awesome
Already 3000+ Attendees Registered for the Upcoming Embedded Online Conference
Chances are you already know, through the newsletter or banners on the Related sites, about the upcoming Embedded Online Conference.
Chances are you also already know that you have until the end of the month of February to register for free.
And chances are that you are one of the more than 3000 pro-active engineers who have already registered.
But If you are like me and have a tendency to do tomorrow what can be done today, maybe you haven't registered yet. You may...
Some Embedded System Software Design Resources
I recently received a message from an embedded systems engineer in England asking about a good resource for embedded system software design and easing debugging difficulties.
That's challenging because embedded systems cover such a wide range. There are many possible run-time environments and architectures.
Thus there's no single resource that covers all ground. However, the resources below provide a lot of good material. In aggregate, they make up a good set from which to pull various...
Introduction to Microcontrollers - Beginnings
Welcome to this Introduction to Microcontroller Programming tutorial series. If you are looking to learn the basics of embedded programming for microcontrollers (and a bit of embedded hardware design as well), I hope these tutorials will help you along that journey. These are my first postings here, and I am writing this tutorial series because over the years I have seen countless newbies asking the same questions and tripping over the same stumbling blocks, and I thought I might be able to...
MSP430 Launchpad Tutorial - Part 2 - Interrupts and timers
What is an "interrupt"? It is a signal that informs our MCU that a certain event has happened, causing the interruption of the normal flow of the main program and the execution of an "interrupt routine", that handles the event and takes a specified action.
Interrupts are essential to avoid wasting the processor's valuable time in polling loops, waiting for external events (in fact they are used in Real-Time Operating Systems,
Analyzing the Linker Map file with a little help from the ELF and the DWARF
When you're writing firmware, there always comes a time when you need to check the resources consumed by your efforts - perhaps because you're running out of RAM or Flash or you want to optimize something. The map file generated by your linker is a useful tool to aid in the resource analysis. I wanted to filter and sort the data generated in an interactive way so I wrote a C# WinForms application that reads the data from the map and presents it in a list view (using the awesome
VHDL tutorial - A practical example - part 3 - VHDL testbench
In part 1 of this series we focused on the hardware design, including some of the VHDL definitions of the I/O characteristics of the CPLD part. In part 2, we described the VHDL logic of the CPLD for this design. In part 3, we will show the entire VHDL design and the associated tests used to prove that we have, in fact, designed what we started out to design.
First, let's pull all of the pieces of the prior design together into a...
How FPGAs work, and why you'll buy one
Today, pretty much everyone has a CPU, a DSP and a GPU, buried somewhere in their PC, phone, car, etc. Most don't know or care that they bought any of these, but they did.
Will everyone, at some future point, also buy an FPGA? The market size of FPGAs today is about 1% of the annual global semiconductor sales (~$3B vs ~$300B). Will FPGA eventually...
MSP430 LaunchPad Tutorial - Part 4 - UART Transmission
Today we are going to learn how to communicate using UART with the Launchpad. For this purpose I will replace the default microcontroller that comes with the board with the MSP430G2553. It is the most powerful device in the MSP430 Value Line and it comes with an integrated hardware UART module, along with 16 Kb of Flash memory, 512 bytes of SRAM and an 8-channel, 10 bit ADC.
UART communication can be useful when dealing with sensors: as a basic example, we could...
Chebyshev Approximation and How It Can Help You Save Money, Win Friends, and Influence People
Well... maybe that's a stretch. I don't think I can recommend anything to help you win friends. Not my forte.
But I am going to try to convince you why you should know about Chebyshev approximation, which is a technique for figuring out how you can come as close as possible to computing the result of a mathematical function, with a minimal amount of design effort and CPU power. Let's explore two use cases:
- Amy has a low-power 8-bit microcontroller and needs to compute \( \sqrt{x} \)...
How to Read a Power MOSFET Datasheet
One of my pet peeves is when my fellow engineers misinterpret component datasheets. This happened a few times recently in separate instances, all involving power MOSFETs. So it’s time for me to get on my soapbox. Listen up!
I was going to post an article on how to read component datasheets in general. But MOSFETs are a good place to start, and are a little more specific. I’m not the first person to write something about how to read datasheets; here are some other good...
Understanding and Preventing Overflow (I Had Too Much to Add Last Night)
Happy Thanksgiving! Maybe the memory of eating too much turkey is fresh in your mind. If so, this would be a good time to talk about overflow.
In the world of floating-point arithmetic, overflow is possible but not particularly common. You can get it when numbers become too large; IEEE double-precision floating-point numbers support a range of just under 21024, and if you go beyond that you have problems:
for k in [10, 100, 1000, 1020, 1023, 1023.9, 1023.9999, 1024]: try: ...MSP430 Launchpad Tutorial - Part 1 - Basics
TI's LaunchPad is a complete MSP430 development environment: all you have to do is download and install CCS IDE (login required), connect your G2231-ready LaunchPad to your computer with the included mini-usb cable, and you are ready to code!
Texas Instrument MSP430 LaunchPadSo, let's see how to start a new project in Code Composer Studio. This IDE is derived from Eclipse, so if you used it before you shouldn't have much problems.
We'll write a simple program that will...
2024 Embedded Online Conference's Schedule
Welcome to the 2024 Embedded Online Conference! Like with previous years, this year's event will be a mix of pre-recorded on-demand sessions and live Zoom sessions. We've carefully curated the schedule to ensure that you have access to a wealth of valuable content throughout the week.
Most talks will be released on-demand, while most workshops and keynotes will be done live on Zoom. There will also be multiple live 20-minute-long Q&A sessions happening throughout the week, providing you...
EOC 2024 - I Will Attend Giveaways!
With the Embedded Online Conference just around the corner, we are very excited to announce an opportunity for you to win one of many amazing prizes, thanks to the generous contributions of DigiKey, Jetperch and Saleae!
For a chance to win one of the following prizes, all you have to do is help us with spreading the word about the conference.
Prize: LulzBot Mini...Call for Bloggers!
Are you passionate about embedded systems? Do you have valuable insights, tips, or stories to share with the embedded community? Do you want to reach a large and engaged audience of embedded enthusiasts and professionals? We are currently looking at adding a few more inspired writers to our team of bloggers.
Get Involved: Contribute Quiz Questions for the Embedded Systems Community for a Chance to Win a LAP-C Pro!
Submit a Quiz Question for a chance to win a Zeroplus Lac-C Pro!
Free Sessions @ the 2023 Embedded Online Conference
Although the 2023 Embedded Online Conference will officially start only on Monday 04/24, today we are pre-releasing all Theatre Talks and Demos in order to give attendees a headstart over the weekend on a very busy program.
The good news is, you don't need a paid registration to access theatre talks and demos. All you have to do is create an account on the EOC website and skip the payment part.
Here are the 37 sessions that you can watch for...
Back from Embedded World 2023
It was great to be back in Nuremberg for Embedded World after three long years. The trade show is probably the most significant event in the embedded systems industry, and it was a relief to see that it has survived the pandemic with more than 900 vendors exhibiting.
I recorded this video on the very first day when the doors opened. What you see in the video is probably 10% or less of the full show floor. I am always impressed by the size of...
What to See at Embedded World 2023
Embedded World 2023 is just around the corner, and I am thrilled to be attending this year's edition in Nuremberg, Germany. The last time I was there was three years ago, and the world was on the cusp of a major pandemic. It was a surreal experience as many booths and exhibits were empty and cordoned off by security tape due to last-minute cancellations. It was clear that something big was happening.
But with more than 900 vendors exhibiting this year, I'm glad to see that Embedded...
Favorite Software AND Hardware Tools for Embedded Systems Development
Last year, at the Embedded Online Conference, we interviewed the speakers and asked them what were some of their favorite software and hardware tools for Embedded development.
We aggregated all their answers in one insightful video that you can watch here.
Although you should really watch the video in order to get the full picture, I've compiled the following non-exhaustive list for the fun of it (again, I cannot overstate enough how much valuable...
A New Related Site!
We are delighted to announce the launch of the very first new Related site in 15 years! The new site will be dedicated to the trendy and quickly growing field of Machine Learning and will be called - drum roll please - MLRelated.com.
We think MLRelated fits perfectly well within the “Related” family, with:
- the fast growth of TinyML, which is a topic of great interest to the EmbeddedRelated community
- the use of Machine/Deep Learning in Signal Processing applications, which is of...
New Promo Video for the 2022 Embedded Online Conference
Less than a week to go before the conference! Check out our 2022 Embedded Online Conference promo video, featuring (in order of appearance) Helen Leigh, Peter McLaughlin, Jack Ganssle, Tyler Hoffman, Steve Branam, Colin O'Flynn, Miro Samek, Henk Muller, Jacob Beningo, Harrison Donahue, Kate Stewart, Clive (Max) Maxfield, Don Wilcher, Adam Taylor, and Jean Labrosse.
If you haven't registered for the conference yet, please consider doing so today. Make sure to use the...
